Genesis 39:1-23
Shawshank Redemption is one of the top movies on my list of go to
movies. Andy Dufresne was a banker
who was accused of murdering his wife.
Sent to Shawshank prison he maintained that he was innocent. In once scene Andy goes into the
wardens office and begins to play Mozart on a record player. Then he locks the doors and plays it
over the PA system so that all the inmates could hear the glorious voices of
the singers and for one fleeting moment taste freedom.
Of course this act of defiance and beauty lands Andy in solitary
confinement. When he finally made
it out he sat with his friends who asked how he made it through. He said he had Mozart, Mozart was in
his heart and his mind when he, all bloodied and pale, laid on the dark and
cold floor of solitary. Mozart got
him through this time.
When someone or something is in your head and your heart while in the
deepest crevices of your life then you are offered a chance of survival. No one can take that away from
you. Andy depended on hearing the
music in his heart. Mozart was
with him.
In the past two weeks we learned that Noah was heir to the covenant of
God, that Abram in his effort to move to parts unknown received God’s blessing
and today we will come to understand the abiding presence of God through the
story of Joseph, great grandson of Abraham, a man named Potipher, and his not
so charming, opportunistic wife.
These are stories of intrigue, deception, conspiracy, steadfastness,
and the human condition. These
stories are about how God seeks to be present and accounted for in all
circumstances of life.
Now Joseph was taken
down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard,
an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.
The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man; he was in the house
of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the
Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands.
So Joseph found favor
in his sight and attended him; he made him overseer of his house and put him in
charge of all that he had. From the time that he made him overseer in his house
and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s
sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. So
he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge; and, with him there, he had no
concern for anything but the food that he ate.
Now Joseph was
handsome and good-looking. And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on
Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife,
“Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and
he has put everything that he has in my hand. He is not greater in this house
than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you
are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie
beside her or to be with her.
One day, however, when
he went into the house to do his work, and while no one else was in the house,
she caught hold of his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” But he left his garment
in her hand, and fled and ran outside. When she saw that he had left his
garment in her hand and had fled outside, she called out to the members of her
household and said to them, “See, my husband has brought among us a Hebrew to
insult us! He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice;
and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me,
and fled outside.”
Then she kept his
garment by her until his master came home, and she told him the same story,
saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to
insult me; but as soon as I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment
beside me, and fled outside.”
When his master heard
the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, “This is the way your servant
treated me,” he became enraged. And Joseph’s master took him and put him into
the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; he remained
there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love; he
gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. The chief jailer committed to
Joseph’s care all the prisoners who were in the prison, and whatever was done
there, he was the one who did it. The chief jailer paid no heed to anything
that was in Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did,
the Lord made it prosper.
Joseph! What next? What more could possibly happen to Joseph
the favored son of Jacob? Prior to
this scene we see him hated by his brothers because he dreamt dreams of power
and authority, and he had been given a very pretty colored coat to boot, they
take it upon their jealous hearts to toss him into a pit. But then, rather than let him die in
the pit the sell him to the Ishmaelite who transport him to Egypt. He was then sold to Potipher, an
official of Pharaoh. Human
trafficking is as old as the hills; it’s one of the lower points in this human
tragedy of Joseph which spirals even lower.
Yet Joseph was a good man and he does well so Potipher appoints him
over his entire household. Joseph
had equal rights with regard to household authority even over Potipher’s wife,
but he had no rights to her body, and he knew that. She, of course, knew it too yet she actively pursued
him. And when Joseph wouldn’t
capitulate she accused him of rape.
So Joseph’s rise to power didn’t last that long before he descended
back into the pit of despair once again and was jailed, falsely accused. The difference between Joseph and
others in jail is that Joseph had integrity, he says no and pays the
price. And the text says the
Lord was with him. The Lord was
with him when he prospered and the Lord was with him in his prison cell. The Lord was always with him. Like Andy Dufrense with Mozart in his
heart and mind, the Lord was with Joseph too in his heart and his mind.
God’s story is one that is not only a story about people thousands of
years ago but it’s about us too.
God does not guarantee our safety, our health, but we do see that God
is with us in the high and lows, the ambiguities and complexities of our lives,
the places of imprisonment that you can’t crawl out of. God’s presence is not a quick fix for
all that ails you, it is not the miracle elixir that will cure your pain or
take it away but it can give you great measure of comfort to know that you are
not alone in any of the circumstances of your life.
“The Lord was with Joseph” is a refrain that echoes throughout this
passage, and that is our refrain too.
When you can’t see the light because the bills have piled up so high in
front of the windows, the Lord is with you. When depression threatens to take you way low, the Lord is
with you. When relationships go
sour and aloneness prevails, the Lord is with you. Always and forever, the Lord is with you.
We know that Joseph’s story doesn’t end in prison. This dreamer and interpreter of dreams
of extraordinary measure find favor once again in Pharaoh’s eyes. His patience
is rewarded and he prospers. He is
reunited and reconciled with his family.
And God was with him throughout all of his life.
May the covenantal God of Noah, the God of rainbow blessing to
Abraham, and Joseph’s God of promise and presence be active in your life.
May the Lord be with you……………..And also with you!
Amen.
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